Without You By My Side
by Horrible-Sanity-Poe
Summary: Post Deathly Hallows. Harry wasn't able to Defeat Lord Voldemort. Ron attempts to try, but is unsuccessful also. Hermione was a witness to both of their deaths. She is mentally unstable. Ginny finds her and helps her to feel again.
1. That Night

Without You By My Side

Harry walked up to Voldemort and starred him right in the face.

"What are you going to do? You are just a small little wizard compared to me. What? Do you think you can beat me?" sneered Voldemort as he starred at Harry with the same intensity.

Harry didn't say anything but just looked at Voldemort. Images of Ron, Hermione, all of his friends that fought by his side for seven years ran through Harry's mind. But the image that he most longed to see was of Ginny; the person that he loved the most but would never to get to say that too. He shut his eyes to block out the images. For some reason it hurt him to think of them.

All Harry could do was just looks around for an opportunity to pop up in front of him. He was trying to get the snake without getting killed. His chances of that happening seemed very slim, but he had to take a chance. Then he saw it. Quickly, without thinking, Harry lunged at the snake with Gryffindor's sword in his hand. Voldemort was faster though and he saw a glimpse of Harry trying to make it.

"Advada Kadavra!" yelled Voldemort as he aimed his wand at Harry's chest. There was a flash of green and a thud as Harry fell to the ground in midair.

"Harry! No!" screamed Hermione. She started to cry and fell to the floor of the underground entrance by the Whomping Willow. Luckily, her crying was muffled. Ron ran over to her and cradled her limp body in his arms.

"He's dead, Ron! He's dead!" she told Ron after she was able to speak in between the sobs.

"What do you mean he's dead?" He was rocking back and forth with Hermione in his arms.

"He's dead!"

That was all Ron could get her to say. Ron tried to get up but Hermione just held on tighter. They stayed there for a few more minutes. Hermione fell asleep in his arms. As he was sitting there, he head Voldemort talking to his snake. He got up and set Hermione gently on the ground. She did not stir.

"It is finished now. You will be able to go wherever you please once again."

Ron dared to peek up from the tunnel by going through he lose tile in the floor of the Shrieking Shack. He saw Voldemort cast a spell to get rid of the bubble protection around Nagini. Then she fell to the ground and slithered her way up to Voldemort's shoulders. He then started to pet her head. She looked very please.

As Ron looked around the room, his eyes fell upon Harry's body. Some kind of magnetic force made his eyes stay on Harry's body. What he saw made him bubble with anger. He wanted to lash out at Voldemort. Harry's body was laying long-ways on his stomach with his head turned to one side and in his hand he had Godric Gryffindor's sword. Ron quietly pulled himself through the hole and he went around the perimeter of the room to hide behind the four-poster bed. He was thinking of surprising Voldemort somehow or sneak up on him so that maybe he would be able to kill Voldemort. Then he would be a belt to be on top of the world for once and not the famous Harry James Potter.

In his head he was debating whether or not to avenge his friend's death or just let Voldemort do whatever he wanted to do. Then the images of seeing Fred lying there in the Great Hall with the other people who died while trying to keep Voldemort at bay made him cringe. Ginny's image pooped into his head. Ron remembered that Harry, his best friend, had saved his only sister's life. That made his mind up for him. He would, at the same time, avenge Harry and Fred's deaths and also get rid of the creature that has been tormenting everybody in the wizarding and muggle world. He didn't care about being the hero or not.

He saw Voldemort by peering around the bed. Voldemort was looking at Hogsmeade and Hogwarts through one of the grimy windows that were in the bedroom. Ron was about to take his chance, now that Voldemort had his back toward him, when he heard this blood-curdling scream come up from the tunnel. Ron then jumped out from his hiding spot and took a chance just as Voldemort turned and spotted him.

"Advada Kadavra!" said Voldemort as his wand sliced the air. Then spell his Ron just as he reached the sword. There was a second flash of green and a second thud that night; this thud had woken up Hermione.

She looked up and down the tunnel but could not find Ron by her side. She could feel the tears coming up to her eyes. Hermione wiped here eyes so that they wouldn't get blurred. She walked to the opening of the roof of the tunnel and saw that Voldemort already had Apparated probably to Hogwarts' grounds.

As she went over to look through the window, she tripped over Harry's body. One look at the body made her want to faint and scream, but she couldn't. Hermione couldn't do anything. All she could so was draw her knees up to her chin and just stare at her boyfriend's and best friend's dead bodies. She could not tear her eyes away from their dull, glassy, unfocused eyes that were staring up at the ceiling.

"Why would you guys leave me here like this?" she whispered into the air.

She tuned onto her side and curled up next to Ron's body, so she could be close to him for one more time. There she cried until she fell asleep. She didn't want to ever move ever again.

~*~* 2Years Later ~*~*

GinnyPOV

"I don't think we can do anything more for her. She just sits there looking through the window and saying their names over and over again. I'm so sorry, Ginny," said Luna Lovegood, the attending wizard at St. Mungo's. She gave me a hug and turned to tend to the other wizards in the Insanity Ward.

"Thanks for looking after her. I can take her home now?"

"I believe so. Let me just go check with the Head real quick."

"Sure."

I walked over to Hermione's window to go and try to talk to her. When I got there, she looked like she had been to hell and back. She had bags under eyes, to make it look like she didn't get any sleep at all, most likely the case here. Most of these patients don't get too much sleep. I approached with caution and put my hand on her shoulder.

She jumped out of her chair and screamed at me, "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Ginny. Remember me? I was Ron's little sister."

"I don't know any Ron or Ginny. Get away from me!"

"Please, Hermione. Just sit down again and then I'll explain everything to you. Please?" I begged her.

She slowly sank back into her chair, her eyes never leaving my face for one second the entire time. At least this wasn't as bad as last. I had to get three people to stun her before she would get off of me. She attacked me, and started cussing at me while saying death threats if I didn't get away from her. That freaked me out for a few weeks. She seemed so sincere about coming after me. It took a while for my husband, Christian, to calm me down when I got home.

"You wanted to explain everything to me? Well, now's your chance."

"What would you like to know?"

Hermione was quite for a long while. She was contemplating what to ask me first. This made me a little nervous for some reason.

"I want to know what happened that night." There was a hint of sadness in her eyes even if it wasn't in her voice. She really wanted to know what happened.

The very thing that I was dreading she would ask me. I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell the story without losing it myself.

"Well, Harry had gone to the Shrieking Shack alone to finish off Voldemort." The passing nurses cringed a little as I said his name. I ignored them and went on. "He had entered through the tunnel under the base of the Whomping Willow roots. Ron was concerned about him, so he followed Harry. That was before you convinced him to take you along with him. You had said that he was your best friend too.

"You guys went along the tunnel way when you came to the hole that lead up to the Shrieking Shack. Both of you stopped to hear Voldemort kill off Harry. That made you snap. You stared crying until you fell asleep in Ron's arms.

"While you were asleep, Ron put you down and then he went to go get the sword to try and finish off Voldemort himself. He didn't accomplish his task though. He died-," I didn't want to say the words that were true, but I did anyway. "He died, because of you Hermione." I let this sink in for a little bit.

"What do you mean all of this was because of me?" She put her head in her hands.

"You had woken up right when Ron was about to stab Voldemort. The screaming made Voldemort look back at the tunnel entrance, and he saw Ron there. Ron saw that he had no other chance, so he lunged at Voldemort, but Voldemort was too fast for Ron. He shot the killing curse at Ron."

Everything was quiet. Even the other patients were listening, most of which don't understand what we're talking about.

"If you hadn't screamed, Ron would still be here with us and you wouldn't be like this." I tried to keep the anger out of my voice.

"What happened after that?"

"Well, I couldn't find Harry. I figured he would be wherever Voldemort was, so I followed the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack after Voldemort had Apparated. I saw you curled up with Ron's arm around you. You were just sitting there crying. I tried to help you but I couldn't get you to leave Ron. I sat there with you until someone came looking for us. In the morning **McGonagall **came over there to look for us. She levitated you, after she sedated you, and the three of us walked over to the Hospital Wing. You were asleep for a while. It was about three days before you began to stir. "But when you did, you would not stop screaming Ron or Harry's names. You couldn't stop crying either. We sent for someone over at St. Mungo's to come and get you. They diagnosed you there and they said that you had post-traumatic stress disorder. They tried to help you, but you were too far gone. You had let the darkness have you." "So then why are you here?" "I came to come and get you. They said that a nice quiet home might do you some good. It might even help you. So, are you willing to come home with me? I promise that you will have the best care that I can get you." She thought it over for a little bit. She slowly nodded her head. That's when Luna came back. "You are free to take her home now, if she agrees to go with you." "she agrees with it." I looked over at Hermione. "Ready to go?" I took her hand in my hand. Surprisingly she didn't flinch like she usually did. "Yes." I helped her out of the hospital. This was going to be a start of a new day for Hermione. I could feel it. 


	2. Dear Awesome Readers

Dear Awesomeness Readers:

I'm sorry to say that I won't be updating for all of the month of August. I'm going to be starting marching band camp then. I will be going from 7:45 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. So, as you can see, I won't be able to have to update. You might be lucky, though. Sometimes they give us days off, so I'll think about updating something. We shall see. I'll be able to start updating again in September! Anyway, thanks for being patient! You guys rock!

Lots of love,

*Aless*


	3. The Conclusion

HermionePOV

What else could I do? I couldn't stay there for another day, let alone for probably forever. I had to get out of there. Those people were insane!

"Well, here we are. Hope you like living here. I know Jacy is very excited to meet you. He won't stop telling his friends that the best friend of Harry Potter is going to be staying with him." **(****AN: Even though Harry didn't kill Voldemort, they still think of him as a hero, since he was the one that had stopped him earlier.)**

I just nodded as she went on about this boy names Jacy, whoever he was. I didn't care that he was a five year old boy that liked to play with his mini broom, or was learning how to read. None of that even phased me something important. i could tell that Ginny was getting frustrated with my not paying attention to her telling me about her sweet angel. I just wanted to get this over with. I mean how long could this last for? A month or two? Just until they "think" that I'm stable right? It had better be. This hell is much worse than the other one.

We pulled up to see a two story house with a lawn and a fence going around the perimeter of it. Like something you would see out of a magazine or a movie. I think I was about to puke over the perfect life scene that I was looking at right now. But it did have something about it that was restful in a way. It might take a while to get use to it, but it was manageable enough. Ginny pulled out my suitcase from the back of the trunk that she was driving. Guess she didn't want to freak me out with the Apparating stuff, since I haven't done it in a while.

We walked up a little stone pathway up to the front of the house. I could see under a tree a kind of marker for something and by it was a little boy and a man standing around it. They were just looking at it. I turned to see Ginny, who had stopped to look over at the man and the boy, had a tear running down her cheek.

"What are they staring at?"

"It's a marker for Harry's grave. He's not in it or anything, but we put i there for remembrance of how brave he was." She added the last part as she saw my face. I looked like I wanted to puke, knowing that Harry's body would be only a couple hundred feet from me the whole time that I was in this Hell.

"Oh." I just kept walking, not bothering to go over to the marker. I won't be setting foot anywhere near that thing for a while.

Ginny reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys to the door. She opened the door, and what I saw was amazing. There was a spacious entry-way with a table in the middle of it. Beyond that, I saw a living room that had huge bay window over-looking what seemed to be a lake. It had weeping willows all around the lake, giving shade to a good portion of the shore line. There was a huge green lawn going around the lake that continued all the way to side of the house and then to the front. It was so peaceful. I just wanted to go into the lake, clothes and everything, and just jump into it and forget everything this world has to offer me. Actually, what it use to offer me.

"Did you want to go outside for a little bit, Hermione? You can if you want. I'll go with you so you're not alone." Ginny turned to me and took the bags that I was carrying and she turned down a hall to the back of the house, that I'm guessing, was to be where my room is.

"That would be nice." I continued to stare at the lake. I was snapped back to reality by Ginny.

"Hemione?"

"What?" I asked in a kind of dreamy voice that reminded me of Luna Lovegood.

"I said, do you want to go now? Or do you want to wait until we eat dinner first? Either way is fine with me."

"Oh. We can go after dinner. I just want to go lay down for a little bit before we eat. I'm tired from the ride over here." I rubbed my eyes for a dramatic effect.

"Sure thing. Your room is over here next to Jacy's. I hope you like it. Jacy helped to decorate it." She smiled as she opened the door.

"It's nice. I like it." I turned back to her. "I'll call you if I need anything."

She took that as me meaning for her to leave. "Okay. I'll just be down the hall making dinner. We're having spaghetti with salad."

"Sounds good." Ginny turned to leave and she shut the door behind her.

I walked in and saw it was an average sized room. No complaint there. At least it's my _own_ room that I don't have to share with five other people. The walls were painted a light blue and had picture frames of Ginny and Christian holding Jacy when he was little. The lake was in the back ground. The one next to it was a picture taken in front of Hogwarts. There was a group of people standing around laughing, and had arms linked. I walked closer to the photo and saw that it was my old friends that looked back at me.

Neville's head was turned though. If you followed his eye-line, you could barely make out a toad sitting on the ground behind him. Next was Ginny who had her head resting on Harry's shoulder. Then it was me. I looked so different back then. My eyes were filled with happiness and life. Now when I look at myself in the mirror, they are just empty things. Nothing. No emotion. I kept going down the line of people. My eyes couldn't stop staring at the person who's arm was around my shoulders. It was Ron.

My beloved Ron. The one person that was there for me when everyone else wasn't. I miss him terribly. I still don't believe that he's gone forever. I think that he's away on vacation somewhere and that he's going to come back to me soon. That story kept me from really going insane at St. Mungo's. I felt tears running down my face as I lifted up a shaking hand to touch Ron's face. He just stared back and smiled at me. I took the picture off of it's hook and put it on the bedside table by my bed.

After that, I laid on the bed for a while, just staring up at the ceiling letting my mind drift off to dreamland. It was better than reality at the moment. Or so I thought.

I dreamt that I was standing in front of Hogwarts' front gates. The present me could see the younger me walking out of the castle, going down a path that led into the Forbidden Forest. I followed myself, but kept a safe distance between us. Younger me walked into the forest, but before looking both ways and behind her to make sure no one was following her into the forest. When she went through the trees, I came out from behind the huge boulder that I was hiding behind. I followed the same path that she took and jogged until I could just see her through the trees. She had stopped just before a clearing. I went behind one of the many huge trees that surrounded the clearing in order to get a better view of what was going on.

"I'm here Harry. What did you need?"

Harry walked closer to her. He had this weird gleam in his eyes that I wasn't use too. Well, to rephrase that, I have never seen it before . This was new.

"Harry? What are you doing?"

He just kept getting closer. He had both hands behind his back. What made it creepier was that he had his hood of his cloak up. I could see the fear in my younger self's eyes.

"Harry!"

Harry grabbed her shoulder and then threw me on the ground without a second thought. Her head hit a rock and it started to bleed. I watched in horror, not able to run out there and stop Harry from doing whatever he was going to do. The next thing he did made me what to puke. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a long dagger, similar to the one that Bellatrix had. He got closer and then leaned above the younger me and then started stabbing at her chest. I cringed against the screaming that was ear-splitting. Then I started screaming along with her.

I woke up covered in sweat and screaming. I leaned over the side of the bed and then started puking like crazy. I was crying at the same time, trying to catch my breath in between the puking episodes. The door swung open the next minute. Ginny appeared with Christian closely following her.

"What happened? Are you okay?" she asked that and then Christian looked over to the bed and saw the stain of puke.

"Honey, I think Hermione might be sick," he said while pointing to the stain.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe you should carry her to the couch so that way she'll be closer to the bathroom and us in case she needs anything else."

"Sure thing."

Christian picked me up and carried me from my room to the other end of the house to the living room that overlooks the lake. The sun was starting to go down, even though it was still a couple of hours before it actually did set. I laid there for a while trying not to puke again. Christian had gone to clean up the mess I made in the bedroom. He had brought the blanket on my bed to the couch so I wouldn't be so cold. I don't know how long I was asleep, but Ginny came over to wake me up. She said that dinner was ready.

I got off the couch and went over to the table with my blanket still wrapped around my shoulders. We ate in silence, except for the occasional outburst from Jacy about something that he did when was outside or with some of his friends. It got annoying really fast for me, but Christian and Ginny had never-ending patience for him. It's like they could listen to him all day long if they could. I wouldn't put it past them if they did. They loved that little kid to death.

After dinner, everyon went into the living room to watch some TV for a little while. I sat back on the couch and stared mindlessly at the screen not even noticing what's going on.

"Can I talk to you Hermione?" Ginny came over to where I was sitting. "Remember you wanted to go out by the lake after dinner?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure." I took my blanket and followed her out the back door and across the deck that ended and the grass lawn started just before we got to the shore of the lake. Ginny took a seat on the grass and I followed suit. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Umm... Well, I was just wondering why you had screamed is all. Would you mind telling me?"

"Well, it was nothing really. I was at Hogwarts and was following a younger self that was following a path into the Forbidden Forest. She then stopped in this clearing and she was talking to-" I stopped. For some reason I couldn't say his name. I tried again, but it still didn't come out.

"Talking to who?" Ginny was staring at me with such intensity.

"I can't say his name for some reason."

"Can you descibe him?"

I thought about it and got up. Ginny followed without asking any questions. We got to the front of the house and I pointed to the grave marking of Harry's.

"Oh. Harry. Well, what did he do to your younger self?"

"He had pushed her and then got Bellatrix's dagger and then started stabbing her. I tried to stop him but I couldn't do anything. Then I woke up and started screaming and puke."

"Well, Luna was telling me that people with your condition, they have nightmares that are so real taht they do weird things. It's normal. Don't worry about it."

"Okay."

We went back to the back of the house and sat back down where we were. I wanted to lay there forever and not move and not think about anything ever again. We did do that for a couple of hours but then I said that I was still tired and we went back into the house. Christian asked if we had a good time out there. I just nodded. He was satisfied with that response because he went back to watching the TV.

Walking down the hall, I began to think about why I couldn't say Harry's name. I figured that I wouldn't be able to say Ron's name since he was my boyfriend and all. I opened the door to my room and walked in and laid down on the bed and just thought about it. After a couple of hours I came to a conclusion. If someone loved someone, and then that someone died, the other someone would not be able to say his name. So, if that were true, I must have not loved Ron Weasley, but loved Harry Potter.

**AN: In case you guys are wonder, Ginny married a muggle that she had met after she left Hogwarts in her seventh year. :) Also, will be last update for a month! :(**


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